Penn Museum's 'Maya 2012' exhibit explores calendar phenomenon, more

A TV show on the Maya civilization is what first sparked 11-year-old Simon Martin’s interest in the subject. Ever since that fateful day in the early ’70s, Martin, of England, has taken his interest in all things Maya and turned it into so much more than a career.

“I don’t have a job. I have an obsession,” he said with a laugh.

It’s an obsession that’s taken the epigrapher — a person who studies inscriptions and writing — to archaeological digs in Central America and to countless museums all over the world, sharing some amazing discoveries.

“I fell in love with Maya art first of all,” said Martin. “I couldn’t understand the language. It was the hieroglyphs and sexy art and the calendar thing that first attracted me to it.”

Standing beside a replica of a Maya monument depicting a king, Martin pointed out the intricate carvings — carvings that tell a specific story.

“I’m interested in learning things and communicating them to people,” he said.

In the exhibition, “Maya 2012: Lords of Time” — opening at the Penn Museum May 5 — visitors will have a chance to do just that. They will take a journey through Maya’s time-ordered universe, shown through intricate calendar systems and the power of the divine kings, the “lords of time.”

Through more than 150 objects, including artifacts recently excavated by Penn Museum archaeologists in Copan, Honduras, museum guests will be able to follow the rise and fall of Copan and move across the centuries to learn how Maya ideas about time and the calendar have changed.

In the last few years, the fascination with the Maya calendar — particularly the Maya apocalypse that’s supposed to happen on Dec. 23, 2012 — has put this ancient civilization in the spotlight.

“‘Maya 2012’ offers visitors a rare opportunity to view spectacular examples of classic Maya art — some of which have never before been seen outside of Honduras — and delve into the Maya people’s extraordinary, layered, and shifting concepts about time,” said Dr. Loa Traxler, exhibit curator.

Reading the Maya language is no easy feat.

“They were deliberately very obtuse. There’s no gender pronouns in Maya writing. We don’t always know what they mean,” said Martin, who serves as co-curator of the exhibit.

But learning the language of this ancient civilization was something Martin just had to do. He was a graphic designer who worked in television production for many years, so studying Maya writing was a hobby — at first.

“I did it for fun,” he said. “I wouldn’t say I have a real talent for multiple languages.”

And yet, he’s become one of the foremost Mayanist scholars in the world.

“Suddenly, I see something that no one’s worked out before,” Martin said.

The exhibit is full of “lost” discoveries. So much of the Maya culture was lost during the Spanish Conquest. Only four books remain. Two reproductions, the Dresden and Madrid Codices, are partnered with an extremely rare book written just after the Conquest which reveals the Mayan civilization’s changing concepts of time.

Martin’s favorite piece in the exhibit is the Margarita Panel, a replica of an extraordinary find in Copan, Honduras. Measuring almost nine feet high by 12 feet wide, the panel was discovered by a Penn Museum excavation team in the ’90s. The model was reproduced with the use of “laser scanning,” Martin said.

“It’s actually still buried underground,” he added.

In addition to art, artifacts and replicas of Maya monuments and busts, the exhibit also features interactive fun.

A touch table lets guests go on their very own archaeological dig. Four to eight people can participate on the dig around the table, said Tara Poag, exhibit project manager.

“We wanted to make it a group experience,” she said.

Visitors explore parts of excavation tunnels and tubes discovered under pyramids in Copan. With the help of pictures and drawings — made by actual archaeologists on site — visitors can find the artifacts themselves. Museum-goers can uncover many of the artifacts on view in the exhibit.

“We really tried to make it hands-on,” Poag said. “We wanted it to be something people would remember when they left.”

If you go: “Maya 2012: Lords of Time” opens at the Penn Museum May 5 and runs through Jan. 12. Tickets for adults are $22.50, for seniors and military personnel $18.50 and $16.50 for students with ID and children ages 6 to 17. For tickets visit, www.penn.museum/2012 or call, 888-695-0888.